People assume their employer has legal obligations here that it does not yet have, and overlook the one thing they can formally require a response to. The gap between those two is worth knowing before you raise anything.
Guidance, not law: the Tripartite Advisory
The Tripartite Advisory on Mental Well-being at Workplaces was issued by the Ministry of Manpower, NTUC and the Singapore National Employers Federation on 17 November 2020, and reissued as a second edition on 20 November 2023. It recommends mental wellbeing surveys, HR policy review, norms on after-hours contact, manager training, access to an employee assistance programme, and return-to-work support.
Every item on that list is recommended, not required. An employer that does none of it is not breaking any rule. This is useful to know because quoting the advisory at an employer is a persuasion exercise, not a legal one, and it works better if you treat it that way.
Law, from the end of 2027: the Workplace Fairness Act
The Workplace Fairness Bill passed Parliament on 8 January 2025 and a companion dispute resolution Bill on 4 November 2025. It prohibits adverse employment decisions, in hiring, appraisal, training, promotion and dismissal, made on the basis of five sets of protected characteristics, and disability and mental health conditions are among them.
Commencement is expected at the end of 2027. Until then the non-statutory Tripartite Guidelines on Fair Employment Practices are the operative framework, administered by TAFEP rather than through the courts.
What you can require a response to today
Since 1 December 2024, the Tripartite Guidelines on Flexible Work Arrangement Requests give an employee past probation the right to make a formal request for flexi-place, flexi-time or flexi-load, and to have the employer properly consider it and respond in writing within two months. A rejection must rest on reasonable business grounds.
Note precisely what this gives you. A right to ask and to be answered, not a right to a yes, and it sits in tripartite guidelines rather than in the Employment Act. It is still the most concrete lever most employees have, and it is underused.
How to actually use it
- Put it in writing, and date it. The two-month clock is the only part of this with a hard edge.
- Ask for the specific change, not for understanding. “A 9.30 start on Tuesdays and Thursdays” is answerable; “more flexibility” is not.
- You do not have to disclose a diagnosis to make the request, and under these guidelines you are not required to give a reason at all.
- If it is refused, ask for the business grounds in writing. That record matters if you later go to TAFEP, and it changes how carefully the refusal is written.
More on what happens at work, including how confidential an employee assistance programme really is, on stress at work.
Leave a Reply